


Pressed Boy

by Sharpiefan



Category: Show the Colours (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 21:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3994177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharpiefan/pseuds/Sharpiefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the kink meme prompt <i>Taking the King's Shilling - any of the characters being recruited or pressed into service</i>. Leat belongs to <a href="http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/">latin_cat</a> and Chase is the property of <a href="http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/">wayward_shadows</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Pressed Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the kink meme prompt _Taking the King's Shilling - any of the characters being recruited or pressed into service_. Leat belongs to [](http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/profile)[latin_cat](http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/) and Chase is the property of [](http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/profile)[wayward_shadows](http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/).

  
**Fandom/Canon:** Show the Colours  
**Spoilers:** None  
**Word count:** 971  
**Rating:** G  
**Pairing/Characters:** Leat, Button, a cameo by Chase.  
**Author's Note:** Written for the kink meme prompt _Taking the King's Shilling - any of the characters being recruited or pressed into service_. Leat belongs to [](http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**latin_cat**](http://latin-cat.dreamwidth.org/) and Chase is the property of [](http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**wayward_shadows**](http://wayward-shadows.dreamwidth.org/).  
  
The Marine Society hadn't been as bad as Terry Button had feared it would be - although pretty much anything was better than the Foundling Home. Well, nothing could be much worse than the Foundling Home, which wasn't quite the same thing.

About the best bit about the Marine Society was the new clothes he'd been given. He'd _never_ had new clothes before in his life; everything he'd ever worn had been in some stage of disintegration, and to have new shirts and trousers was like something out of a dream. And it wasn't just one shirt and pair of trousers, either, but three - and stockings, and a jacket and caps. And shoes - a pair of shoes that felt confining on feet that had been bare every day for the ten short years of the boy's life. And he had a bag to put everything in, apart from the shirt and trousers he was wearing.

He ran his hand surreptitiously down the leg of his new trousers. The canvas felt strong and coarse and slightly stiff to the touch, but there were no tears, darns, patches or frayed hems. The Navy paid for every boy the Society sent, and part of that money was spent on new clothes for them, something nobody had ever done for Button before.

He was nervous about this, of course. Who wouldn't be, after all? Joining the Navy had to be better than becoming a chimney sweep's boy, though - nobody wanted that. He glanced up at the man from the Society who would be accompanying him and the other boys on the long journey down to Portsmouth.

Mister Jennings seemed gruff and had a no-nonsense air about him, but he looked down at Button reassuringly, even going so far as to ruffle his hair, something that nobody had done before. "It'll be all right, lad, you'll see," he said. Button swallowed and hoped so.

There were about twenty boys in this group, though not all of them were going to be joining the same ship as Button, of course. He clutched the slip of paper that had the name of his new ship written on it. _Terpsichore_ , he'd been told it said, and thought it sounded a strange, but pretty, name for a ship. Mister Jennings had told him a bit about it - her, he reminded himself.

She wasn't a new ship. They had been going to lay her up in Ordinary - whatever _that_ meant! - but she'd been repaired and was being re-commissioned under a new Captain. He had no idea what was meant by a '32-gun frigate', but it was obviously something to do with her size.

The journey down to Portsmouth took three days - three long, uncomfortable, dry and dusty days, with the boys growing increasingly quiet and withdrawn as the reality began to sink in. Button didn't mind much - after all, he had no family and no real future apart from that represented by his slip of paper.

Finally the hired coach drew up outside the gates of the Dockyard. The boys scrambled down, looking around wide-eyed at all the sailors, officers and Marines - and the women - with the towering masts of those ships in the harbour. They clustered together nervously as Mister Jennings spoke with the smartly-dressed Marine on sentry outside the gate.

Things seemed to happen very quickly after that. Mister Jennings organised boats to take out those boys whose ships were at anchor, dropped another three off at a tavern that was a rendezvous for one ship's pressgang, giving them into the charge of the Lieutenant in command of the gang, and finally turned to the last two boys, Terry Button and a slightly older lad, Jacky Fisher.

Mister Jennings consulted his list for the last time. "Right, lads, your ship's alongside, so there won't be any trouble there. This way." He led the way back out of the gates, past the sentry and along to where a smaller ship was moored. She was still big enough, to Button's eyes, and her masts were higher than almost anything he'd ever seen before. There was a red-haired officer on deck, and Mister Jennings lost no time in taking the two boys up the gang-plank. They hung back as he spoke to the officer, who signed his piece of paper.

"Now then, lads, you're part of the Navy now. Be good and you won't have anything to worry about," Mister Jennings said, pushing them forward towards the officer, before touching his hat and heading back down the gangplank. Button clutched his kitbag tightly, biting his lip as he looked up at the officer.

"Right, I'm Lieutenant Leat, the Second Lieutenant of this ship. Which one of you is Button?"

"M... me, sir," Button said, shuffling forward a little.

"So you must be Fisher, then?" the officer said, looking across to the other boy, who nodded.

"Y...yes, sir."

Mister Leat nodded briskly. "Right, do your duty and remember your manners and there won't be any trouble, understand?" The boys nodded, and the officer called over a nearby sailor, who came over, grinned at the two boys and knuckled his forehead to the officer.

"Sar?"

"Chase, take these two below and get them settled in."

"Aye, aye, sar."

They followed him below, staring around at the number of people there were, and in such a small, low space. The sailor had to duck his head, but he didn't seem to mind that. "I'm Cob Chase, and you wouldn't believe I was a nipper like you two, once. You'll soon square yourselves away and be right at home."

Button hoped so, but he couldn't believe that he could ever 'be right at home'. Though... maybe this could be home, properly, the first he'd ever known?

Only time would tell.


End file.
